As far as I can discern, the biggest buzz of the past few months on the SLC dining scene has been the soft opening of Mensho – a new ramen shop located in the Post District, which is also home to new businesses like Melancholy Wine & Cocktail Lounge, Sunday’s Best, Level Crossing Brewing, Urban Hill, Dangerous Pretzel Co., Urban Sailor Coffee, and coming soon, La Casa del Tamal.
Foodies have been flocking to Mensho in droves and wait times for a table can be as over an hour. Mensho originated 20 years ago in Tokyo and today there are 34 Mensho locations ranging from Japan, Thailand, China and Australia to Hawaii, Arizona, California, and now, Utah. Much has been written about the San Francisco Nob Hill Mensho being a “Michelin Starred Restaurant.” For the record, it is not. Michelin lists Mensho as a “Selected Restaurant with Good Cooking.” I’m pretty sure that there aren’t any – or at least many – Michelin Star restaurants that use paper napkins and don’t take reservations. Just wanted to clear up any misconceptions about Utah having a Michelin Starred eatery, not that it’s likely to impede Mensho mania.
As mentioned, Mensho doesn’t take reservations. So anticipating long lines, we visited Mensho early – around 5:30 – last Saturday and were surprised to find tables available – no wait. By the time we left there was a waiting list for tables, but it was still small. Now that Mensho has been doing a “soft opening” with a limited menu since May, perhaps the hoopla has died down. Or maybe people just eat there as a one-off after they’ve discovered the high prices for ramen, bowls of which run from $20 to $45.
The high cost of ramen at Mensho is due, in part, to the high quality ingredients they use. This is not unique to Mensho, of course, but they adhere to a “Farm to Bowl” philosophy, saying that “We use local ingredients to make our ramen. Our primary ingredients are from the fields around Utah capturing the freshness and flavor. We shop at local markets while engaging with wholesalers and producers constantly using the freshest ingredients for our ramen.”
Teppan Grilled Hotate Butter
Before we get to the ramen, Mensho does offer a few other menu items including a handful of appetizers like Enoki Chips ($11), Garlic Edamame ($8), Daikon Salad ($11), and a seafood dish we shared: Teppan Grilled Hotate Butter ($18). This was five small Hotate scallops that came to our table sizzling and served teppan-yaki style in an iron dish with bubbling butter, scallions, lemon, burdock root and shoyu. Although Mensho prides itself on utilizing local products, I’m pretty certain that the Hotate scallops aren’t local. To be honest, we didn’t love the overpowering fishy taste of the scallops served with gonads attached.
Spicy Karaage
Japanese-style fried chicken – karaage – is very popular in ramen shops and Mensho offers two variations: Karaage ($15) and Spicy Karaage ($16). We opted for Spicy Karaage which was a generous serving of boneless fried chicken pieces with eggplant, shishito pepper, fried garlic, microgreens, and “OG chili sauce.”
A5 Wagyu Ikura
In addition to the aforementioned small plates, Mensho serves up sushi – albeit probably not the sushi you’re thinking of. There is no raw fish. Instead, there is Niku Sushi. Niku means meat in Japanese and the sushi served at Mensho is all based around thin slices of A5 Wagyu beef. There are seven A5 Wagyu sushi options each with slightly different toppings ranging in price from $16 to $22 – the latter being A5 Wagyu Caviar wherein the beef is topped with sturgeon caviar, edible gold flakes, and served with wasabi, ginger, and shoyu. We dispensed with edible gold flakes and ordered the most basic Niku Sushi, which was A5 Wagyu Ikura ($17) – two pieces of nigiri-style sushi rice topped with Japanese A5 Wagyu, salmon roe (ikura), wasabi, ginger and shoyu. As with the Hotate scallops, the A5 Wagyu at Mensho is not local, but comes from Japan. I was somewhat surprised that the A5 Wagyu is served with reconstituted wasabi, not freshly grated. Still, the A5 Wagyu was oh so tender and delicious.
Currently, Mensho offers a variety of beers on draft and in bottles and cans, as well as an impressive assortment of Moshi and Ramune soft drinks. We phoned ahead and were told that we could bring our own wine, since Mensho doesn’t serve wine at present. What we weren’t told was that there would be a $15 corkage fee and that we’d have to drink the wine out of plastic water glasses. There are no ice buckets or wine glasses at Mensho, to be aware if you decide to BYOB that you should also BYOG – bring your own glasses.
Yuzu Shio Ramen
The menu at Mensho is still evolving so the ramen choices that we had last Saturday may differ if you decide to visit Mensho. There were nine ramens on the menu, with three of them being vegan. My wife decided on the Yuzu Shio ($20), which is vegan broth made with kombu, shiitake, porcinis and vegetables to which are added yuzu fruit, spinach, burdock root with the Mensho logo stencilled onto it, grated daikon, roasted tomato, shiitake, scallions, enoki chips, and fresh hosaki menma – the tender tips of bamboo shoots. There’s a variety of extra toppings for ramen offered at Mensho and my wife added three thin slices of chicken to hers, priced at $5. There was a very noticeable oil sheen on the surface of the Yuzu Shio that was a tad unappetizing.
Classic ToriPaitan Ramen
The noodles at Mensho are made in-house from scratch using wheat flour from Utah’s own Central Milling. And they are outstanding. The noodles in my Classic ToriPaitan Ramen ($21) were perfectly al dente, wavy noodles that are a tad thicker than I see at most ramen shops – delicious with a nice, chewy mouthfeel. The Classic ToriPaitan is close to traditional tonkotsu ramen, except that the ramen broth is made using chicken bones, not pork, which creates a creamier broth. It’s one of the best ramen broths I’ve encountered. The ToriPaitan ramen came adorned simply with green onions, hosaki menma and two slices of smoked pork. Frankly, I’d have preferred pork that wasn’t smoked in a more classic tonkotsu fashion. BTW, the pork is from White Marble Farm in Pennsylvania, which specializes in heritage-breed Mangalista pigs – not local.
Smoked Ajitama
There are lots of extra ramen toppings available (at a price) and I added a smoked ajitama egg to my ramen as it didn’t come with any. Inexplicably, the menu lists the ajitama as $3 apiece but we were charged $8 for two of them. With add-ons, already pricey ramen can get truly expensive, as toppings like spinach, shiitake, roasted tomato, red onion, spicy sauce, negi and such run $2-$3 each. The addition of chicken, pork, duck or A5 Wagyu to a bowl of ramen costs $5-$11.
The most expensive ramen at Mensho is, not surprisingly, A5 Wagyu Shoyu ($45), which is aged katsuobushi shoyu soup – smoked and fermented skipjack tuna broth with A5 Wagyu, smoked ajitama, enoki chips, spinach, red onions, shiitake and negi. There is also a soupless version called A5 Wagyu Aburasoba ($40) with truffle paste, ground beef, fried hosaki menma, lemon, spinach, roasted tomatoes, red onion and negi.
G.K.O. (Garlic Knock Out) Ramen
My stepson enjoyed his bowl of one of Mensho’s most popular ramens: G.K.O. (Garlic Knock Out). It begins with rich, creamy chicken bone soup to which are added noodles, chili powder, OG chili sauce, 5 types of garlic, smoked pork, fried spicy gobo (burdock root), roasted tomato, cilantro and red onion.
All in all, dinner for three at Mensho with corkage and two beers came to $164 before tax and tip. Would I go back? Probably not. To be honest, I’m very happy to support the more classic and traditional ramen shops and enjoy the excellent ramen served at spots like Tosh’s, Koyote, Jinya, Yakuza, Kobe, Hana, Toro and Ichizu at more wallet friendly prices. And, I’d prefer not to find roasted tomatoes, spinach, truffle oil, cilantro and smoked meats in my ramen or have to pay an extra four bucks for a single ajitama egg – at most ramen shops the egg is included with the soup with no upcharge. However, I do encourage you to try Mensho and judge the hoopla for yourself. The atmosphere is pleasant, the service is super friendly and the noodles are killer.
Photos by Ted Scheffler
Culinary quote of the week: “Peace will come to the world when the people have enough noodles to eat.” – Momofuku Ando
